Library FAQs

Strayer Writing Standards (SWS) requires you to give credit to any sources you use. You do this in two ways - with a source list at the end of your work, and with in-text citations. 

When crediting a source in your writing, you label it with a number, or in-text citation. If it is the first source you're using, the label will be a (1). If it is the second source you write about, it will be a (2), and so on.

How does this look in an essay? Here are a few examples.

• Smith shares that paraphrasing is a difficult writing skill and takes practice to improve (1).
• Johnson shares that "students require multiple opportunities to refine paraphrasing skills" (2).
• Paraphrasing is a difficult writing skill and takes practice to improve (Brown, 3).

In the third example an author's name is included in the in-text citation. This is because the author's name was not mentioned when introducing the source, like in the first two examples. The author's name should be in one of these two places - the signal phrase to introduce the source, or the in-text citation.

We encourage you to check out the links below, including the "How to Be a Confident Communicator" library guide, for more information and examples.